Escola Secundária

Secund ria de Valongo

Actividade integradora: Construção de um blog

Tema de vida: Património Natural e Cultural de Valongo
QG: O Mundo do Trabalho

rea de Formação:
Área Form LC( Inglês
The impact of the English Company on
on the industry of slate
slate extraction in
in
Valongo and on
on its economic and social growth.

1
Introduction ...............................................................................................................................3

The advent of modern science and technology ........................................................................... 3

The first Portuguese railway company ………………………...………………………………………………………….3

England home of the Industrial Revolution .................................................................................. 4

Technological improvements and inventions in the Industrial Revolution. ................................. 4
The coming of factories and towns. .............................................................................................. 5
Working conditions in England in the Industrial Revolution......................................................... 5
The arguments against factory legislation .................................................................................... 7
The Industrial Revolution in Portugal............................................................................................ 7

Valongo in the 19th century: the arrival of the railway. ....................................... 8

The slate quarries and mines and the impact of the English Company on the slate industry
and the growth of Valongo .......................................................................................................... 8
And the english also brought their technology ........................................................................... 10
The Vallongo Slate and Marble Quarries Company products are awarded worldwide ............. 11
The mines seen as temples ......................................................................................................... 11
Fear and dread in the mines ....................................................................................................... 12
Untold stories .............................................................................................................................. 12

Accidents in the mines ............................................................................................................... 12

The miners’ dance ....................................................................................................................... 14
The ‘cantina’ ................................................................................................................................ 15
The miners’ living and working conditions.................................................................................. 15

And it is said that….. ................................................................................................................... 16

And then the war broke out ........................................................................................................ 16
The mines at present................................................................................................................... 17

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Introduction

It's been almost 50 years since Man first went to space. From the spaceflight by
Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in 1961, to the landing on the moon by the U.S. Apollo
program, to the construction of the International Space Station, all these were tremendous
science and technology achievements.

For all of us living in the golden age of space exploration, it’s hard to imagine that it
was only in 1825 ,on the 27th September, that the first train in the world ran in England.

The advent of modern science and technology

From the age of space exploration back to the first trains

The first Portuguese railway company

Twenty seven years later the first Portuguese
railway company (Companhia Central
peninsular dos Caminhos de Ferro de Portugal)
created in London on the 14th May 1952, by
Hardy Hislop, was launched in Portugal. The
first railway line- Lisboa (Stª Apolónia) -
Carregado, - was inaugurated on the 28th October 1856, by the ruling King D. Pedro V.
The Douro Line was inaugurated on the 2nd December of 1887.
In December 1890.the first ‘Compound’ locomotives arrived in Portugal produced by
Beyer Peacock in England

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 England home of the Industrial
Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the
18th to the 19th century of fast technological
development from previously manual labour and
draft-animal–based economy towards machine-
based manufacturing. It brought widespread
social and intellectual change.
The first Industrial Revolution started in
the United Kingdom in the later part of the 18th
century. Then it subsequently spread throughout Europe, North America, and eventually the
world during the 19th century from 1850 to 1900.
The second Industrial Revolution took place around 1850 with the development of
steam-powered ships, railways, and by the late 19th century with the internal combustion
engine and electrical power generation.
Britain became the first industrial nation of the world and a leading power. It was
the workshop of the world.

Link to these:
The industrial Revolution in England http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT-ToV5heso&feature=related
Turning points in History- Industrial Revolution http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Efq-
aNBkvc&feature=related
The Industrial Revolution in America http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPDy-jWT7d8&feature=related

Technological improvements and

inventions in the Industrial Revolution.

The invention of the steam-powered locomotive by

Trevithick (British inventor and mining engineer) in
1800 had a deep impact, not only on industry and
agriculture and the transport of goods, but on the
transport of people and their mobility and social lives.
This was made possible thanks to the invention of the steam engine, by James Watt
(a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer) which became the basis of all the power in the
Industrial Revolution in Great Britain and in the world.
Link to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEymUbVrbgw&NR= The steam engine
Some historians argue that coal was the main cause of the Industrial Revolution. The
steam engine was powered by coal. So were the steam trains. Nevertheless the increase in
production of coal was only possible due to technological changes which made it possible to

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overcome technological difficulties such as flooding(steam power was essential for the
pumping of water from the mines) and the lifting and transportation of coal.
Link to this: The Industrial Revolution- Coal and Iron http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9scwvePHDc&NR=1

The coming of factories and the

changes in the way people worked.

Before 1750, most industry in Britain was small-

scale.
The Industrial Revolution marked the
end of the domestic system of industry, and the
coming of factories and towns.
The shift from working at home to factories brought with it a new system of working.
The steam engines never stopped, so this required significant changes in the way
people worked. Now workers didn’t have to be strong or skilled. The steam-powered
machine did all the work, so children began to replace men as the key workers in industry.

Link to this: The birth of factories http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPlFGGJkQK0&feature=related

Working conditions in England in

the Industrial Revolution
There’s no doubt that he Industrial
Revolution brought its blessings, but there
was also much misery. Machines have made
work easier and faster and scientific
knowledge reveals power over nature. In the
two centuries following 1800, the world's
average per capita income increased over 10-fold, while the world's population increased
over 6-fold. But we live in the legacy of the Industrial Revolution, the legacy of the "cash
nexus," as the mid-19th century Scottish critic Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) put it, where the
only connection between men is the one of money, profit and gain.

In the new industrial towns factory owners sought to control and discipline their
workforce through a system of:
• long working hours (normal shifts were recorded as 12 to 14 hours a day)
• a fierce system of fines ( for things like talking or whistling, leaving the room
without permission, of having a little dirt on a machine. It was claimed that
employers altered the time on the clocks to make their workers late so that they
could fine them)
• Low wages (a typical wage for male workers was about 15 shillings a week, but
women and children were paid 7 shillings and children 3 shillings. So employers

5
 preferred to employ women and children. Many men were sacked when they
reached adulthood and had to be supported by their wives and children)

The working conditions were so bad that many

children who were forced to stand for long hours grew
up with conditions such as knock-knees and bow legs.
On the other hand the fact that children were
forced to crawl into dangerous, unguarded machinery
- often when they were so tired they were falling
asleep on their feet - led to many accidents.
There were many cases of pneumonia in cotton mills, because cotton thread had to
be spun in damp conditions at 70ºF.
The air was full of dust, which led to chest and lung diseases and loud noise made by
machines damaged workers' hearing.

Link to this: Child Labour http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdCJivaztMw&feature=related

Link to this: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1312764/Britains-child-slaves-New-book-says-misery-
helped-forge-Britain.html#ixzz1AjvEH1Mj (Britain's child slaves)

Reforms to change working conditions

Working today is usually quite safe. But at the start of

the Industrial Revolution no laws existed to protect the
workforce and so working in a factory could prove to be very
dangerous indeed.
As concerns were raised about the working conditions
in factories, especially for children, reformers began to
propose changes to improve the working environments.
Robert Owen and Titus Salt, both employers, were amongst a
group of people who were known as reformers. These people wanted changes to the way
that factories were run. They faced opposition from other mill owners who knew that
reforms would cost them money and give the workers more rights.
The reformers gradually managed to force changes to the way that workers were
treated.

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 Several acts were passed covering health, safety, and
working hours and at what age children could be
employed. These are some examples:

Factory Act 1819 Limited the hours worked by children to a maximum of 12 per day.
Children under 9 banned from working in the textiles industry and 10-
Factory Act 1833
13 year olds limited to a 48 hour week.
Factory Act 1844 Maximum of 12 hours work per day for women.
Factory Act 1847 Maximum of 10 hours work per day for women and children.
Increased hours worked by women and children to 10 and a half hours a
Factory Act 1850
day, but not allowed to work before 6am or after 6pm.
Factory Act 1874 No worker allowed to work more than 56.5 hours per week.

Trade unions in the United Kingdom were legalised in 1871.

The Trade Union Movement sought to reform socio-economic conditions for working
men in British industries.

The arguments against factory legislation

There were also several arguments against factory legislation...

For example some argued that increased costs would ruin the industry, which was responsible for the
wealth of the country.
This was later found to be wrong – better fed, less tired workers produced more, not less.
Others argued that the workers were like children and would only spend the extra time and
money they were given in drunkenness and crime.
This turned out to be wrong – better conditions led to less crime.
The government of the time believed it was wrong to interfere in the free working of the
economy. That was the laissez-faire politics.

Sources:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/bseh/industry/workingconditionsrev2.shtm
(adapted and slightly abridged)

The Industrial Revolution in Portugal

By 1900 Portugal had about 5 million inhabitants.

It was a predominantly rural country. It had a weak industry, most of it was foreign.